Morning traders. Thanks loungers, especially @Ravgnome.
Outlook for the day: Negative as commodity weakness and the Dow's worst night in nearly a month set the tone ahead of mid-morning domestic inflation data that could alter the market's trajectory.
ASX futures: down 29 points or 0.37%
Overnight themes:
US stocks finished mixed as a tech rebound lifts the Nasdaq and S&P 500, but weakness in the wider market sent most sectors lower and the Dow down almost 300 points.
Nvidia continued to dictate the market direction on the Nasdaq and the S&P 500. Both benchmarks broke three-session losing runs as the chip-maker bounced 6.76% after entering a technical correction on Monday.
The S&P 500 gained 0.39% despite only three of its eleven sectors rising (tech, communication services, energy).
The Nasdaq Composite bounced 1.26% as chip-makers, Meta, Alphabet and other megacap tech stocks advanced.
“Tech is again leading the way, and Nvidia is being bought off the dip. This year is still all about tech and AI — maybe a little bit of profit taking over the last few days." - Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance (per CNBC).
The Dow shed 0.76% as just eight of its thirty component companies made headway. Tech gains were outweighed by declines in cyclicals that had benefited from market rotation in recent sessions.
Cyclicals retreated after a report showed US consumer confidence wilted this month as Americans fretted about the economic outlook. The Conference Board's confidence index slipped to 100.4 from 101.3 in May.
"In an environment where economic growth is potentially decelerating, which we're seeing signs of, that would tend to benefit higher-quality stocks that have less sensitivity to the economic cycle" - Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management (per Reuters).
The Dow Transportation Index declined 0.79% to its first loss in three sessions. The Russell 2000 index of small caps shed 0.42%.
A rising greenback weighed on copper, gold and other US dollar-denominated commodities. Benchmark copper declined 1.29%. Gold futures gave up 0.71%. Copper has fallen more than 10% from last month's record as stocks in London Metal Exchange warehouses hit six-month highs.
"The China story is bearish, Chinese stimulus isn't working, isn't enough and the property market shows few signs of recovery... [Copper] inventories are also weighing on sentiment" - unnamed metals trader quoted by Reuters.
Iron ore fell for a fourth session in as seasonal factors in China compounded worries about steel production caps. Benchmark ore dropped 0.69% on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.
May inflation figures this morning are expected to show consumer prices last month grew 3.8% year-on-year, up from growth of 3.6% in April.
Key events today:
May inflation report (Consumer Price Index) - 11.30 am AEST
US new home sales - tonight
S&P 500: up 21 points or 0.39%
Dow: down 299 points or 0.76%
Nasdaq: up 221 points or 1.26%
Dollar: down 0.15% to 66.44 US cents
Iron ore (Dalian): down 0.69% to US$109.53
Brent crude: down US$1 or 1.16% to US$85.01
Natural gas (US futures): down 2.8% to US$2.73
Gold: down US$13.60 or 0.71% to US$2,330.80
Silver: down 63 US cents or 2.14% to US$28.90
NYSE Arca Gold Bugs: down 1.01%
Bitcoin: up 3.56% to US$61,851
Copper (LME): down 1.29% to US$9,536
Nickel (LME): up 0.2% to US$17,235
Uranium (spot price): steady at US$85
Lithium carbonate (China spot): down 1.16% to US$12,623
